


The Start of Something Special

by Opalsong



Category: Hockey RPF, Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Vernon Boyd & Erica Reyes, Crossover, Disney Princess AU, F/M, Lacrosse is hockey, M/M, POV Multiple, Pre-Season/Series 03, Soul Bond, Trope Subversion/Inversion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-12
Updated: 2013-09-23
Packaged: 2017-12-26 08:42:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/963922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalsong/pseuds/Opalsong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott is a Disney Princess, complete with animal loving niceness.  Tazer is his Prince.  Stiles and Kaner help them work it out and they all play some hockey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Game 1: LA

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after season 2 of Teen Wolf. It was written prior to season 3 so I was still operating under the "everyone becomes pack under Derek-the-Alpha." As for Hockey, I believe this begins late in the season of 2013-2014 but again it was written in the spring of 2013 so any trades that have gone down since then are not included. Also, Beacon Hills is hockey crazy in this universe not lacrosse crazy.
> 
> I need to thank a giant number of people for helping this come to fruition. Firstly I want to thank my MOST AMAZING BETA FRIEND EVAR for coming through for me and getting this fic beta'd. She is in neither Teen Wolf nor Hockey so she deserves all the kudos for making this readable!! (any remaing mistakes are my own) I want to thank my theatripod group who came up with the idea of Disney Princess!Scott in one of our recording sessions and to whichever awesome person on tumblr created the picture of Tazer with Disney Prince written on it. Thanks to bessyboo who answered all my hockey questions and helped vet the prank war. Finally, thanks to madecunningly who helped me create this universe and work out the timelines and worldbuilding.

So here’s the thing: Scott was a Princess.  Yeah, like the ones that Disney took advantage of in their parks.  Of course, not all Princesses were animal loving, singing, beautiful young girls; case in point, Scott’s mom was no longer young and Scott himself wasn’t a girl.  (Stiles would forever think of Scott’s mom as beautiful and Scott?  Well, he’d never tell anyone, but in moments of weakness he thought Scott was beautiful too.)  Many, many Princesses didn’t like animals either, but that was probably one of the reasons why Melissa McCall moved to wildlife-infested Beacon Hills after her divorce – both she and Scott had a thing for animals.  When Stiles was younger, before Scott was a werewolf, the McCall house would always be playing host to at least one wounded or stray or something animal.

Being a Princess didn’t really give him any special powers; Stiles knew for a fact that Scott routinely forgot that it was a thing at all, though that might actually be deliberate.  Stiles was the one to sit down with Melissa and discuss Princes and destiny and bonding and all that crap because Scott just refused to think about it.  In fairness, a second, contributing factor may have been that Melissa still wasn’t completely healed from the whole debacle with Scott’s dad and didn’t really want to talk about it with Scott.  Pain and awkwardness lay that way, so Stiles took one for the team and hung out with Melissa, getting the low down on what Scott was in for in the future.

For a long time Stiles didn’t think he’d ever have to deal with Scott and bonding and Scott’s inability to acknowledge that he was a Princess.  Then Allison happened the _same week_ Scott was turned into a werewolf.  Stiles may have overreacted a little to all these things happening at once  (and he definitely included Derek creepering around as a “thing”).  But once Stiles got over his very-understandable-thank–you-very-much freak out he sat down to figure out how this was all going to work.  Since this was Stiles’ (okay, Scott’s) life, Derek _of course_ couldn’t remember any werewolf Princesses -- or Princes for that matter -- so how was anything going to work?  How was Scott’s eventual Prince going to meld into the Pack?  For that matter, what about Allison? 

Scott certainly wasn’t considering the Prince problem, and even when Stiles brought it up Scott just looked at him blankly and said “but I love Allison” in his dopey Allison voice.  This required dirty work, otherwise defined as talking to Allison about it.  It wasn’t even behind Scott’s back because Stiles invited him along, but no, Scott had to find the perfect birthday present and as a result was trying to avoid Allison like the plague (he wasn’t doing so well, since he was also drawn to her in the halls).  Allison had taken the Scott-is-a-Princess reveal well, and didn’t even laugh, unlike certain other pack members that could be named … or, okay, unlike _everyone else,_ possibly including Stiles himself,  which just proved that Allison was a better person than, well, almost everyone on the planet.  Allison came up with a pretty elegant solution to Stiles’ worries about Scott’s Prince:  “Wait and see.” HAH! Fine.  It was going to happen eventually.   Every Princess found her Prince (or vice versa); It was one of the Laws of the Universe (literally, there was a unit on it in Math: probability was never 100% except when referring to Prince/Princess pairs).  Stiles was reassured, though he really wanted to bleach his brain of the entire conversation, because Allison had continued and talked about sharing and polyamory and how that could totally work.  Stiles had run away and hid in Scott’s basement to clear his mind by playing Halo until school the next day, and even then he couldn’t look Allison in the eye.

To recap: Scott was a Princess.  Scott was a Princess who hadn’t found his Prince, but did have a girlfriend with whom he was very much in (reciprocated!!!) love, and the Pack knew.  There was mocking, because really, was there a universe in which that wouldn't happen?  That’s right, there wasn’t. 

None of this was important right now, however, because the Beacon HillsCyclones had actually won State Championship.  Stiles had played in the State Championship game and they _won_.  He still couldn’t believe it.  Okay, he could.  They had four or five werewolves on their team, after all, depending on whether Coach decided to force Boyd to be part of the team that day or not.  And now the team was flying to LA to do a trick shot exhibition at an NHL game.  Stiles honestly thought he might pass out from excitement - they got to watch an NHL game, go to LA, and skate on the ice that some of the best hockey players had skated on not moments prior.  Seriously.

It was the middle of the second period when everything went to hell in a hand-basket.  Scott was ginning next to Stiles and they were yelling and screaming together with the rest of the team.

“We’re winning!  The Kings are winning!  Two nothing!”  Scott yelled into Stiles’ ear, barely audible over the roar of the crowd.  Stiles grinned back.  This game was better than anything he’d ever watched on TV, online, or on his phone.  Better even than watching his team win the State Championship (did he mention they were champions? Because they were.  Just so you know).  Stiles was in heaven. 

“Did you see that beautiful forecheck!  How does he do that?”

“Jackson did that last practice,” Scott said trying, and failing, to shoot down the sheer awesome that was Patrick Kane.

“Jackson is a werewolf.  Kane is not and don’t tell me he might be because I’ve thought of that and run the stats and it doesn’t add up to werewolf.  It only adds up to awesome!” Scott had no comeback, so  Stiles just kept talking. “And don’t tell me that maybe werewolves don’t have the same tells in hockey.  They do and there are wolves in the NHL.  Brent Burns is one, in fact.  Scott?  Scott are you listening to any of this?”

“Dude what?” Scott said turning his head ever so slightly to Stiles, but keeping his eyes on the rink. “I tuned you out at werewolf.  Why would I think about anything wolf related when there is NHL hockey in front of me?”  Okay so Scott also had an irrefutable point.  When Scott suddenly stopped elbowing Stiles every time something particularly exciting happened on ice (i.e. every five seconds) and went still Stiles, weirded out, turned to him and shoved his shoulder, hard. “Dude, what’s up?”

Scott was staring at the ice with a strangely intense expression on his face.  No yellow in his eyes, so it probably wasn’t a wolf thing, thank god.  Stiles slowly turned and followed Scott’s gaze to discover  Jonathan Toews, who was staring right back.  Well, not back at Stiles, but at Scott, and with Scott's same focused intensity.  What the hell?  Toews’ mouth dropped open just a little and he squinted up at them.  Stiles swung his face back to Scott’s in time to catch Scott mirroring Toew's expression.  Holy crap.  He looked back at Toews; the guy was just standing there, at a full stop in the middle of the ice.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, Brown smashed Toews into the boards in a brutal hit that Toews obviously wasn’t ready for.  Underneath the gasps and roar of the crowd, low enough that Stiles only heard it because he was tuned in so closely, came a low moan from Scott.  Well, that sealed that deal.

Scott turned, shaking his head as if coming out of a trance. “What...”  He trailed off after that one word, obviously bewildered.

Stiles grinned. “We’re going to have to switch allegiances.  Cause it looks like you just found your Prince.”  Scott just looked even more confused.

Luckily, Toews wasn’t injured by the hit.  In fact, once he made it back to the ice he was on _fire_.  He tore up the ice and managed to score a goal in the time remaining in the period.  He did even better in the next period when he pulled a hat trick out of nowhere.  Every time the puck went in he’d look up into the stands to where Scott was sitting.  It didn’t look like he ever actually found Scott in the crowd but, hey, it there were a lot of people. 

After the game (the Hawks won, pretty much entirely because of Toews’ instinctual need to show off for his Princess) the rest of the pack (well, the ones on the hockey team) pounced on them (note: find a less feline metaphor) for info, because according to Jackson, Scott “smelled weird.”  Stiles explained to them that Scott had found his Prince. Then, because Scott was an idiot who never listened and the others had no reason to know the details of Princess-Prince bonds beyond “ha ha, that's funny”, he had to explain that too.  So in addition to the immutable fact that every Princess had a Prince, there was the fact that every Princess would meet her Prince before she died, and yes, Stiles was using the traditional pronouns for this explanation- so sue him.  There were some terribly made but terribly sweet Canadian movies about 80-year-old Princesses finding their Princes after giving up and almost giving in to, like, cancer or something.  Stiles watched many inadvisable things when researching this stuff (and no one would ever be able to prove that he cried at the end of that particular movie, ever).  Once the Prince and Princess met they instantly bonded (how did they know whether the person was Their Prince?  They just did.  That’s right, even modern science couldn’t really explain it.  There were lots of theories, most involving hormones or brain waves but nothing conclusive).  That bond wasn’t anything like bonds in the stories that people wrote online (about Tazer and Kaner and yes Stiles was that sort of fan, get over it, okay.  They were meant to be, obviously.  Except.  Oh god.   His best friend was Tazer’s Princess. What. No, there was no time for incoherence.  There would be time later.  Moving on, the Prince/Princess bond (hereafter known as the P-bond) was mostly an emotional one.  It’s said that super strong pairs could become telepathic but most bonds just provided an emotional connection and maybe a little emotional spill over.  Also, it was destiny saying that this person was right for you, completed you in every way.  There were some cases, however (like Melissa), in which destiny could be told to  go fuck itself.

When Stiles finally told the pack who Scott’s Prince was they, understandably, freaked out.  It was great.  Scott was super embarrassed and didn't really want to go down and talk to him or even meet him.  Which, what.  Even without the Being His Prince factor, why would you turn down a prime opportunity to meet Jonathan  Toews?  Scott was crazy sometimes.  Scott bowed to this logic and agreed to talk to the guy. Just talk.

  Erica took it way further.

To be fair, it was born out of necessity..  When they got to the locker room there were tons of press (hat trick! hello!)  and they couldn’t get through.  Even when they were finally, maybe, getting somewhere, some guy came up and started demanding press credentials.  Normally this would have been a good thing, security and all (okay, no, in what universe would someone barring Stiles and company from the locker room of people he really admired be a good thing?  Maybe if said people wanted to eat him?  In the not fun way?) but right now it was super unhelpful.  Then Erica decided to help out (note: Erica, never allowed to have ideas again).  She began yelling, at the top of her lungs, that Toews’ Princess was here and trying to see him.  Everything went kind of crazy after that.

Eventually someone pushed through the crowd of press surrounding Erica and shouting questions. 

“Shit, you’re his Princess? Well, get in here and stop yelling.”  The rest of the Pack shoved through in Erica's wake.

“You had to bring your friends?” the guy said.

“Well, yeah.  I couldn’t leave them to be swarmed by the press.  Also I’m not Toews’-“Erica responded with her usual sass, but was cut off by Patrick Kane bouncing up.

“This is Tazer’s Princess?  Seriously?  That is hilarious!  She’s what, fifteen?”  Kane was gleefully bouncing up and down.  They weren’t even completely out of view of the reporters and he was saying stuff that could make life really hard for Toews and, more importantly, Scott.  Kane, as it turned out, was an ass.  A brilliant hockey player (seriously did you see his assist to Toews in the third?) but an ass none-the-less.

“Hey, maybe we should get them out of the locker room.  Especially if she is that young.”  Keith (seriously, their saviour was Duncan Keith) said to Kane while trying to herd them into a side door.  Gratefully, they went.  After some more shoving and shouted questions they ended up in a quiet room that looked like it was used for storage of some sort.  Erica was looking a little yellow around the eyes and Scott just look freaked.  Then more hockey players came into the room.  There was a general hubbub about Erica and she looked more and more flustered until, finally, Toews came into the room.  He looked at Erica and his shoulders sank just slightly.

“That isn’t her.  She’s taking you in.” By the end of the statement he looked a little angry.  Stiles was about to jump in when Erica yelled,

“Finally!  That’s what I’ve been trying to say this entire time but no one will let me talk.  I’m not Toews’ Princess!  I’m not a Princess at all!  The one you’re looking for is McCall.” She shouldered out of the mass of Blackhawks and stood behind Scott, who looked like he was going to be sick.

“I’m going to puke,” he muttered.

“No, you’re not.  You’re going to look him in the eye and and not faint or wolf out, like the strong, independent Princess you are,” Stiles murmured back.  Scott’s answering grin looked a little like a grimace but he tried.  Toews scanned the room and when his gaze landed on Scott his mouth tensed slightly.  Scott gaped a little; not his most attractive look, but not his worst, either.  Stiles gave Scott a small push towards his Prince and Scott stumbled forward a couple of steps.

“Oh,” said someone who had to be Kane.

“Shit.  Well, let’s give them some space.” Once again, Keith took charge of  herding them out of the room.  And then the press exploded again.

A twenty-five year old suddenly gaining a sixteen year old Princess was not actually the scandal the reporters were making it out to be.  According to Stiles’ research (and the fact that there weren’t numerous arrests every year for statutory bonding) it wasn’t actually illegal.  It wasn’t even very strange; adults bonded to near adults often enough.  If Scott had been fifteen, or hadn’t hit puberty yet, oh god, it would have been a different story and a scandalous one at that.  But Scott was sixteen, near the end of junior year, and Toews wasn’t even thirty, so it wasn’t odd.  The male Princess thing wasn’t even a strange occurrence, though there were definitely stereotypes for Princes and Princesses regardless of gender.  Scott fit some of those, but at the same time was in a completely different universe than the rest.  Maybe it was just that Toews was famous?  Probably.

For a while it seemed as though the furor would never calm down.  The pack (minus Erica, suspiciously) was crammed into a corner and ignored by the press once it became known that none of them were eighteen.  After what felt like an exceedingly long time the press were finally done and gone, looking unhappy because Toews did not reappear and neither did his Princess.  After they left, one of the people in charge, an assistant GM, Stiles thought, came in and brought Coach Finstock with him.  Coach Finstock looked like just being in the locker room with the Blackhawks might make him faint, but he managed to hold on long enough to visibly count his players.

“You, Bilinski, where’s McCall?  And the girl, Erica?  Did they get lost in a closet with their faces stuck together?  I thought McCall was stuck on that Argent girl that won’t join the team.  He could at least use his limited sexual prowess to get her to play for us.  As a co-captain it should be his job to help recruit players.  Well?”  Stiles had opened his mouth several times during this speech but shut it when Finstock kept ranting.  The looks on the various Hawks players' and staff’s faces were priceless, though.

“Scott’s in a back room with his Prince, Coach,” Stiles answered dutifully.

“Why is the girl with him?  They’re not getting it on right now, are they?  I’ve heard stories about Princes finding their Princesses.  The true story of Cinderella had more than just dancing at that ball.  So romantic though.”  As Finstock talked the look on Kane’s face went sort of green.  In fact, pretty much every adult in the room looked disturbed.

“Erica got mistaken for the Princess when we first got in here and so she figured she’d stay with the Prince and Princess,” Stiles said, in an attempt to  try and inject some truth into this discussion.  The faces were looking better at this, though the people who had not been in the back room were looking a little confused.

“Chaperoning!  The girl always has good ideas.  Well, we should go see them now.”  Finstock’s face was a picture of glee.

“That is a very good idea,” one of the men in suits was quick to put in, and they were quickly shuffled back to the back room where they’d left Scott. 

One of the guys opened the door to reveal, oh god.  Scott and Toews were in the exact positions they’d left them in, staring at each other. 

Stiles glanced at Erica, she nodded. “They’ve been like this the whole time.  They haven’t even made noise.”  Stiles very nearly slammed his face into his hand; he only managed to control himself because there were actual, real life NHL hockey players in the room and there was only so much indignity he could cause himself.

Scott finally broke the lingering silence.  “You’re a guy,” he said. 

Toews nodded, looking a little dumbfounded at the statement, and replied, “and you are only eighteen.”

“Ha ha!  Guess we know what was wrong with your last girlfriend.  She was way too old for you,” Kane shouted gleefully from somewhere behind Stiles. 

“Hey, I’m sixteen, not eighteen!”  Scott yelped.  Kane cracked up, laughing about jailbait.  Coach Finstock saved them by continuing to keep things classy.

“McCall, your Prince is Toews?”  he asked, sounding a little stunned.  Scott turned and nodded.  Coach Finstock dropped to the ground in a dead faint.


	2. Game 2: Chicago

When a Princess and Prince bonded they were basically married, at least in a legal sense.  This had been part of the law since the United States of America was formed, a holdover from   British law that no one had bothered to revisit.  There had been male Princesses and female Princes since time immemorial, which meant that even in states where gay marriage was illegal, and indeed even before it was legal anywhere at all in the USA, Princes and Princesses of the same sex could still function as a marriage.  There were, as mentioned earlier, stereotypes for all Princesses and Princes and even more for male Princesses and female Princes.  But these weren't important right now.  The important thing was that same-sex P-bonds were not strange or unheard of.  Disney even had a male Princess in one of their movies, which went to show how non-threatening it was (although, to be fair, the Princess was the absolute embodiment of all stereotypical Princess traits).

For the average Princess and Prince, bonding meant that they moved into one or the other’s house, begin to share bills and groceries, and most likely actually got married a short while later.  They were considered, for legal purposes, a unit as soon as the bond happened.  In the case of mutually underage Princess and Prince, the families of the two usually moved close together so the pair could get to know each other and almost live together while still actually living with their legal guardians.  There were also cases where one of the pair wasn’t from a great home situation and the two used the bond to move into the other’s home together.  None of these situations applied to Scott, however.  When only one of the pair was underage, things become slightly trickier.  In most cases, either the family of the underage person moved to be near the adult or, more likely, the adult would move to be near their underage bonded.  Once again, the underage person would generally live with their legal guardians until they came of age. 

Scott and Toews’ situation wasn’t that easy, though.  Toews was unable to move away from Chicago because of his contract with the Blackhawks (and he wasn’t likely to be traded anytime soon.  Anytime at all really.) and Scott had the pack, so was equally unwilling to move.  They were going to have to figure it out.

In the meantime, Scott and Toews were in the honeymoon phase of their relationship; well, they would be if they were normal people.  In actuality they stared at each other a lot while looking stunned.  To help them further their bond and get to know each other, Scott and Stiles were going to Chicago with the Blackhawks.  Stiles had insisted on coming because Scott was his friend and Stiles wasn’t leaving him alone with a large number of adults to be influenced and swayed (and probably also give away the furry secret).  Also, the moment Scott found out he was going he’d latched on to Stiles and insisted he come too.  Coach Finstock was also coming, because apparently they needed adult accompaniment.   Stiles wasn’t sure what good anyone thought Finstock would do but hey, it wasn’t Stiles’ place to ruin the guy’s dreams.  He didn't get much time, anyway: Scott’s mom met them at the airport and Finstock caught a plane ride home immediately thereafter.  

Then they had a super awkward evening at Toews’ apartment where Melissa McCall grilled Toews on everything.  Seriously, Stiles was impressed; he thought she had a list or something.  Everything from his high school grades to his future plans were covered.  (Mostly this amounted to hockey, to Stiles’ absolute surprise. Not.)  She also was very interested in his love life.  Most awkward dinner ever.  Kaner (why was he even there?) didn’t stop grinning the entire time; he even giggled when it got particularly awkward. Somehow, through all the painfulness, Melissa apparently decided that she liked what she heard, because the next day she was completely and whole-heartedly on the Toews/McCall plan and fighting for it.  Which led to Stiles and Kaner (seriously, why was the dude here?  Didn’t he need to go home or work out or something?) sitting outside of Stan Bowman’s office listening to Melissa getting louder and louder every time someone disagreed with her.

“I thought you people would care about Jonathan’s career-“Melissa was cut off by someone in the room Stiles couldn’t hear.

“Woohoo!  Demanding and hot. And Tazer’ll be hanging out with her every day. Is her son the same?”  Kane was an asshole.  Stiles’d thought he’d known that from the news but no, the guy was even douchier in real life.  And yet his hockey was so _good_.  Stiles almost couldn’t reconcile the two, but he’d grown up with Jackson, so it wasn’t actually that much of a stretch.  And really, after seeing Kane’s hockey in person he was more willing to forgive a lot of the guy’s jerkish qualities.  Kind of like Derek and life saving, actually.  Only so many times someone could save your life before you started overlooking the growling and stalking.  But insulting Scott’s mom was just something that Stiles couldn’t forgive.  She was the best, and didn’t deserve some hockey player whistling at her.

“Toews won’t be living with them and you won’t have much time with the awesomeness that is Melissa McCall; which, since you obviously don’t appreciate her the way you should, is probably a good thing,”  Stiles said in his snottiest voice.

“Dude, she’s smoking hot.  Do not tell me that you wouldn’t hit that if she looked your way.” Kane leered in the direction of the door.

“Oh my god, she’s my best friend’s mom!”  Stiles spluttered.  Stiles had more reasons than that for not considering Melissa “bangable” as Kane so tastefully put it.  As awesome as Scott’s mom was, (and she was so awesome that most days, today for example, Stiles kinda wanted to be her) she was not Lydia Martin.  Stiles had never really thought about any girls other than Lydia; she was perfect, so why would he look elsewhere?  It wasn't like he had any other specimens of physical perfection to look at on a daily basis.

“And Tazer’ll totally be hanging with his jailbait Princess any time we’re not on the ice; he’s like the perfect Canadian Prince.”  Kane looked belligerent.

“Because they’ll be in different states, that’s why.  Scott’s coming home to Beacon Hills and Toews is obviously staying here.  Didn’t you listen to anything to anything last night?”  Why was this guy so good at hockey?  Stiles was crying on the inside, he really was.

“I listened to your mom,” Kane said.

“My mom’s dead, asshole.”  Stiles was officially done with this conversation.  Kane could be the brilliant, glorious hockey player he was and Stiles would always love to watch that, but in person? No. He’s done.

“Oh, shit.  Sorry.” Kane actually looked apologetic, what were the odds. “How’s that going to work anyway?  Having a Princess that lives so far away.”

“Well for one, any jailbait issues will not be a problem.  They’ll probably do a lot of Skyping.  Long distance relationships are a thing, you know.”   Kane should know that if he’d ever had a relationship, given how much time he spent on the road.

Kane opened his mouth to say something (probably about jailbait and Skype and phone sex) but before he could say anything Melissa’s voice rose again from inside the office. “My son is not leaving friends and school for senior year!  Do you know what it is like starting a new school?  I didn’t think so!  I’m not making him do it for his last year!  He has friends there!”

Kane apparently forgot what he’d been about to say and then got distracted by something out the window.

“Fuck.  I’m going to have to make some calls,” Kane muttered.  Stiles looked over and saw, oh god.  Derek was standing, creepily of course, across the parking lot staring, right at them.  Stiles smacked his face into his hand.

“Would those calls happen to be about the dude out there, who looks like a movie star version of a serial killer and happens to be staring right at us?”  Stiles asked weakly. “'Cause really, he’s not actually a serial killer and we kinda, sorta, know him.  Me and Scott.  And Scott’s mom.  He’s not going to hurt you.” (Probably. Please don’t let Derek attack a famous hockey player, please.)

“You know that guy?”  Kane looked incredulous. “Some of the guys noticed him yesterday at the airport.  We’ve had fans like him before.  If you’ve been having trouble with him, I totally know people to call to get rid of him.”  Kane was no looking a little worried and very earnest.  This was confusing.  First the guy was the biggest bag of dicks Stiles had ever met and then he was offering to use his connections to get rid of a stalker?

“I really don’t think you do,” Stiles muttered into his hands, and then lifted his head and continued, “Don’t worry about it.  He’s pretty cool.  I’m not sure why he’s here of all places-” other than being a controlling alpha jerk-“but he’s not going to hurt anyone or even do anything but be a creeper around Scott and me.  If he’s really bothering you, I can go out there and try and get him to go away.”  There was no way in hell it would work, but Stiles could try. “Stalking is his way of showing he cares.”   Kane raised an incredulous eyebrow and opened his mouth.  Stiles just kept talking so he wouldn't have to hear whatever terrible remark Kane was going to make. “Not, like, in a Twilight way-” that’s a lie, there were totally shades of Twilight in all of Derek’s relationships- “but in a watching out for us and protecting us from the evils of the world kind of way.”  And Stiles was going to shut up now before he made this worse.  Kane was still looking dubious, but before he could reply, much to Stiles’ relief, Melissa was once more shouting from the office.

“If nothing else think about Scott’s hockey career!  He is co-captain of a team that won State Championship and he’s only a junior!  Would he have that in Chicago?  I didn’t think so!”

Stiles texted a _Go Away! You’re creeping out the hockey players_ to Derek, and Derek glared at him through the glass and stalked away.  Stiles became engrossed in his phone (watching a game he missed yesterday) and ignored Kane.  Kane, the impolite guy he was, peered over Stiles’ shoulder and made a sound of pleased surprise.

“Is this the game from yesterday?” he asked.  Stiles nodded and Kane settled himself in to watch too.  After Stiles got used to the annoyance of Kane watching over his shoulder, he got back into the rhythm of the game.  Kane said something about a pass and they were off, analyzing the game until Melissa, Scott, and Toews exited the office, Melissa looking satisfied, Scott looking happy, and Toews looking bewildered. 

Then it was off to an afternoon skate, which Stiles and Scott were ecstatic to watch, while Melissa seemed more interested in shaking her head and smiling at their reactions.   The skate was amazing.  Stiles still didn’t know exactly how he felt about Kane as a person but his hockey was gorgeous.  Stiles wanted to marry his hockey; Scott's reaction to this proclamation was to whine and ask why Stiles couldn’t have been the Princess instead of him, and Stiles laughed and agreed.  Stiles would have been an amazing Princess. 

In the middle of the practice, Melissa told him that Scott was going home with her and Stiles the next day.  Toews (well, Jonathan to her, of course) would be visiting after the season was over and spending an undecided amount of time in Beacon Hills.  Next year Scott (and Stiles, he hoped) would visit Chicago whenever it worked.  Skype would be involved the rest of the time.

After the skate the team invited them to join them at dinner.  They went out to a nice restaurant and things seemed pretty quiet and tame until the server had taken their orders and Kane obviously couldn’t take this not-being-a-dick-in-front-of-Toews’-Princess-and-his-mom anymore and burst out with chirp.

“What, you’re not going to share with your Princess?  Not going to seduce his young, nubile self with food?” 

Scott started and glanced at Toews warily.

“Where’d you learn the word nubile, Kaner?  Those tweeny romance novels you read?” Sharpy shot back. Apparently now that the silence had been broken it was a free-for-all.  Chirps came hard and fast flying over the table.  Scott began to look more and more nervous.  Stiles wasn’t quite sure why; chirping was a time honoured tradition and Jackson wasn’t even here to make it get mean.  Maybe because most of the chirps at Toews were about having a jailbait Princess.  No one was actually chirping Scott but Stiles supposed he could see that Scott might feel like they were.  Eventually Toews spoke up.

“We’re not going to share.  He doesn’t need to watch what he’s eating right now and I do.”  That caused a pause in the insults while the team tried to process this.

“Why would he need to watch what he was eating ever  You’re not calling your jailbait fat, are you?”  Kane, once again, was the height of tact and politeness.  Also, Stiles could only sit and be silent while his best friend looked sick and his best friend’s mom twitched every time someone said “jailbait,” for so long.

“We do actually have a nutrition plan that we follow when we win State Championship.” Not that Scott’s (and Jackson, Boyd, Isaac, and Erica’s) was the same as the rest of the team.  What followed was silence.  Stiles may have started to panic in that moment, because he was at a table of NHL players and had just spoken pretty derisively towards them.

“Oh shit, I’d forgotten that the kid played hockey,” Duncs said, then looked at Melissa and said, “Sorry about the language.”

“I have a teenage son that plays hockey,” Melissa McCall said, smiling, “I think I can handle you.” She was looking right at Kane when she spoke.  Point to Melissa, she takes the lead.

“Of course Tazer’d have a Princess that played hockey, they’d never be able to talk otherwise,” Sharpy put in with a smile.

“Hey!” was all Scott got out before the chirps began to fly again.  This time, though, they were gentler and also included Scott, Melissa, and Stiles.

“Seriously, this kid knows his shit.” Kane nodded his head at Stiles. “I watched the game from last night with him today and he pointed out stuff we’d never thought of.”  Stiles could feel himself going red.  He was saved from further embarrassment by Derek, of all people.

“That dude’s been standing and staring at us for twenty minutes now and it’s kind of creepy.” Shaw pointed at the window where, lo and behold, Derek was standing across the street and yes, staring at them.

“Not another one,” Sharpy groaned, and reached for his phone.  Melissa frowned and got up.

“I’ll go talk to him.  I wonder if he drove here?  That isn’t safe,” she muttered as she headed for the door.

“If he drove, it was overnight because he was here during your meeting.  I gave him a warning already,” Stiles said.  Melissa just rolled her eyes and walked out of the restaurant.

“You’re just going to let her approach a stalker?” Shaw looked worried.

“He’s not a stalker exactly,” Stiles began.

“Yeah, you don’t say that when you complain about him climbing through your window while you’re in the shower,” Scott put in, ever so helpfully.  Stiles put his head on the table while the hockey players around them looked alarmed.

“Way to help the let’s-not-get-the-police-called-on-Derek cause, there, Scott,” Stiles said to the table.

Scott’s eyes went wide and he blurted out, “No, that’s not what it sounded like!  He’s our friend!  He’s not even a murder suspect anymore!”  Stiles banged his head on the table.  This was a wonderful meal; a brilliant first day with Scott’s Prince.  They were all going to die.

 

***

 

Several days later Jon saw Scott, his mother, and his friend Stiles off at the airport.  Their visit had gone well he thought, there was the meeting with Bowman and some of the PR guys where his Princess’s mother proved just how scary a mother can be – and the practice and dinner afterward – during which his team decided to be the biggest assholes possible.  After those events the rest of Scott’s visit had been quiet.  The Hawks had played a game and won, of course; they all knew his Princess was watching so they couldn’t lose.  The stalker had hung around but Scott was convinced he meant no harm, and both Stiles and Mrs. McCall talked with the man several times throughout the visit.  Jon wasn’t convinced, but hadn’t felt like he could say anything when an adult knew and they seemed to have it under control. 

Now he had seen Scott onto his plane home and was back at his apartment, which was empty for the first time in a number of days.  It wasn’t empty for long, though, because that was undoubtedly Kaner knocking on the door and coming in uninvited.

“I am surprised you let him go that easily,” Kaner was saying as he walked into the apartment. “You’re Captain Control-Freak and you let your Princess go?”  Jon scowled.  Scott was his own person and in high-school; Jon understood why he wanted to graduate with his friends.  He kept silent to show what he thought of Kaner’s interpretation of events.

“He’s sixteen and still a junior, jailbait much?  Seriously, I don’t think you can make any sort of comment about him to the media ever without getting in deep shit.”  When Jon still didn’t reply Kaner kept going. “And he’s a guy!  Since when did you like dudes, Tazer?  You been holding out on me all these years?  Wanting to bang some dude when we were all picking up chicks?  Come on, you can tell me.  You know I’m cool if you want a cock stuffed up your-“Jon slammed a beer down on the side table near Kaner and dropped onto the couch.  Obviously, Kaner wasn’t going anywhere until he’d had his fun and needled Jon about it endlessly so he might as well sit and drink while Kaner did it.

Kaner looked over at him, then at the beer Jon had placed beside him, then opened his mouth again and said, “He’s pretty good looking. You know, if you’re into that.  Which I guess you are, since you guys are destined for each other.”  Kaner used a softer voice for this and actually looked pretty earnest, so Jon thought about it.  Scott was, well. Scott was attractive, Jon would give him that.  But he was young, something that, despite evidence to the contrary, Jon wasn’t actually into.

“He’s a good center.  The trick shot he did in LA was very difficult; I’m not sure any of our guys could have pulled it off,” said Jon, searching for something to say.

“Of course,” Kaner said, looking as though he wanted to put his head in his hands in despair. “Hockey.  We haven’t even seen him play!  I wasn’t talking about his _hockey_ being attractive, either.”  Jon knew that, but how did he say, _Y_ _eah, my Princess is great: enthusiastic, good hearted, and a hockey player to boot.  But he’s still in high-school.  He doesn’t challenge me, doesn’t have the life experience to relate to me, and isn’t blond.  Also, his hockey is good (sometimes unnaturally so) but it isn’t great--_ and not be that obvious.

“Most of his games are on YouTube, and I’m not thinking about him like that.” 

Kaner looked dubious. “Of course you’d find his hockey somewhere.  What I can’t believe is that you’ve got a hot, young dude – and you haven’t denied you like the peen by the way – who is actually, legitimately destined and bonded for you and only you and you don’t want to hit that?”

Jon sighed. “You just said it.  He’s young.  Unlike what you and the guys obviously think, I’m not actually into jailbait. Also, he has a girlfriend.”

Kaner’s mouth dropped open. “He has a girlfriend?  And you’re just taking that?”

“Her name is Allison, and yes, because she makes him happy.”  Tazer thought it was pretty cute, how in love Scott was with Allison.  He’d actually panicked before getting on the plane about having to tell her about Jon.  Stiles had calmed him down and said that Allison had planned for this and then wandered off muttering about scary women and threesomes.  It made Jon slightly nervous to meet Scott’s girlfriend.

“Fuck.  You really okay with all of this?  McCall having a girlfriend, going home, and all that?  You’re really kinda a control-freak and this is letting the guy you’ve been waiting for your whole life just wander back to California.”  Kaner gave Jon a look of concern and took a sip of his beer.

That was the thing: Jon _was_ fine with it.  Scott was pretty awesome, open and enthusiastic and into hockey (Jon’s greatest fear had always been that his Princess wouldn’t like hockey. He was never telling Kaner that).  Jon was glad he had a girlfriend, someone to be that for him, because the thought of fucking Scott did nothing for him right now and she sounded like she had a grip on the Princess thing, maybe more than Scott did.  Jon was even glad that Scott was going home.  The Hawks were on the road a lot and when they weren’t they were often busy with practices and media shit so if Scott and his mom moved to Chicago, Scott would be alone here a lot of the time.  Jon would visit after the season was over and that would be enough.

“Yeah, I’m good,” he said, looking at Kaner. “I know who he is.”


	3. Game 3: Beacon Hills

Jonathan Toews was a Prince. 

Apparently it was a bigger Thing in Canada than in the USA (not as big as in Russia though; Jesus, Ovie).  For as long as Jon can remember he’s known that he is a Prince.  There was a special unit in social studies on it in grade five.  Being a Prince didn’t have any real impact on his life until he got to high-school.  There it became explosive: he was both super attractive because he had all the qualities inherent in Princes, and at the same time not available for long term relationships because he had a Princess waiting for him somewhere.  That turned out to not be as big of an issue when he discovered that he only liked guys.  He had an excuse not to date much.

He'd always made sure to fill out the appropriate boxes in the hockey paperwork for a Prince who hadn’t yet found his Princess; thinking of it, though, he needed to refile that paperwork for the NHL and Blackhawks now that he’d found Scott.  Players who had the royal genes were always a slight risk for hockey teams – there was always a chance they would find their partner and be unwilling to leave them for games or trades.  By the time players hit the NHL this was not normally a problem – you didn't reach that level without some serious dedication -- but some teams were cautious all the same.  On the other hand, having a Prince or Princess could be quite the advantage if their partner was also a hockey player; Prince-Princess pairs that played together made killer teams

Jon’s Prince status was never all that important.  He wasn’t marketed that way by the Hawks, because the United States genuinely didn’t care,  but the Olympics changed all that.  After he and Crosby and the rest of the team won the gold, they were marketed as the Canadian Hockey Princes.  It was everywhere.  There might even have been a cartoon; Jon wasn’t sure, but Kaner swore it existed (maybe he’d get Stiles to check, he seemed like the kind of guy who could out).  His and Crosby's fame skyrocketed and Jon’s Prince status became a giant marketing tool.  Even the Hawks and the US fans cared that he was a Prince now.  The Unbonded Canadian Hockey Prince had found a Princess?  That was big news.  It was a pain. They had managed to squash it in time but it was still going to be a pain to sneak around.

Jon had promised Scott that he’d visit at the end of the season.  Scott still had school (god he was young) and couldn’t take time off to come to Chicago.  It was also more circumspect to go to Beacon Hills – at least their press were all small town reporters that would probably respect their hometown boy’s privacy.  After weeks of separation it was a little nerve-wracking and slightly weird to finally be in the same place as his Princess.  When he, Kaner -- and the rest of the idiot Hawks that were tagging along -- got to the Beacon Hills Airport, it was immediately clear that something was strange.  It wasn’t just Scott and Mrs. McCall and maybe Stiles there to pick them up – there was a big group.

“Of course,” murmured Seabs.  Duncs nodded.  Before Jon could ask what about this was _of course_ Scott bounded up like a puppy and hugged Jon.  He couldn’t keep himself from grinning and hugging back; Scott was like that.  Kaner made dying noises and then got distracted by:

“Stalker dude! Why’s he here?”

“Because we weren’t actually lying when we said he’s a friend.” Stiles came up and grinned at Kaner. 

Then Scott called, “Allison!” and a very pretty girl came up and smiled at him. Someone whistled in appreciation and she gave him a look that promised a slow humiliating death.  He quailed.  Scott actually bounced in place with excitement and he took a step back to introduce the girl.

“Jonny, this is Allison.  She’s my girlfriend.  Allison, this is Jonny.  He’s my Prince.” Scott shot a quick pleased look at Allison when he said “girlfriend” and looked a little unsure when he said “Prince.”  Allison smiled and got right up in Jon’s space to hug him.

She stepped back saying, “I’m glad to finally meet you.  Scott talks about you a lot.”

“It’s good to meet you too.”  Jon replied.  He had expected the famed Allison to be many things from talking to Scott over the past month, including an absolute perfect specimen of the human being, but scary was not one of them.  Also, this welcoming.

“Holy fuck, man, you guys look like you could be brother and sister!”  Kaner, yet again, proved he was the most tactful person in the room.

“Woah, I didn’t realize it until you were standing next to each other but yeah, you do.  You're both kinda controlling and scary, too.  Do you have a type, Scott?”  Stiles was suddenly there and chirping Scott.

“What? No! I, what?”  Scott spluttered, confused.  Everyone was laughing. 

After several minutes of chirping and laughing, the dulcet tones of Metallica’s _Of Wolf and Man_? filled the air and Stiles pulled away from the group to answer the phone.  Scott’s head came up and he looked at Stiles. 

Allison went quiet and then said, “Stiles, what is it?”

“There’s a, um, thing we need to do.  Uhh, can you guys get to Scott’s house?  Is that where you’re staying?  That’s where you’re staying.  Mrs. McCall will be expecting you!  We have to go and do the thing.  See you later.” The words were rushed and fumbled and so obviously a lie, but Scott grabbed Jon in a giant hug and then grasped Allison’s hand and booked it, Stiles running after them, still talking into his phone. “Hey, listen to me.  Put pressure on it.  Yeah.  It’ll heal, just like Jackson a week ago, right? Yeah.  Fuck, we need to get rid of it now!  Scott’s Prince is here with a bunch of his team-“and he was out the door.

“What the fuck,” Kaner said, and for once Jon didn’t feel any regret agreeing with him.

Beacon Hills was fucking strange.  To begin with, that Derek guy always seemed to be in the background watching.  He never approached them or made any kind of threatening gestures and he obviously wasn’t selling information, because there was that time Kaner almost got it on with one of Scott’s classmates that Deadspin would have loved to get their hands on (to be fair to Kaner she did come on to him, hard, and Scott seemed more embarrassed by her antics than anything else).  Then there was the fact that Scott would be hanging out with them, showing them around and then he or Stiles would get a phone call and they’d disappear after giving really terrible excuses.  Scott’s mother was apparently in on it because she would back them up.  For that matter, Duncs and Seabs were maybe in on it too; they kept acting weird, furtive and too familiar with the shady guy.  Also the Coach, Finstock, was fucking nuts, but that might just be him.  The last straw came this morning, when Scott had looked at Jon earnestly and told him to “not go into the woods tonight, okay?”  Which was odd. because Scott hadn’t taken him into the woods yet (he kept saying he would) and Jon hadn’t been pushing to go.

This meant that whatever was going down was probably going down in the woods.  Kaner insisted on coming.  Jon and Kaner waited until it was dark and the rest of the guys were in their rooms; though maybe not Duncs and Seabs, they’d looked shifty at dinner.  Dinner that Scott had bailed on.  Once it was dark, Jon and Kaner walked from their hotel to the edge of the woods; then into the woods.  That was when everything went to hell.

Wolves were howling, and they were close.  Kaner looked around nervously and wanted to go back and Jon was in full agreement, but before they could make it to the town again there was ... something ... there.  Jon had no idea what it was; all he knew was that it  was large and growling and reeked like a gear bag left too long without washing.  Then it turned slowly and ran its glowing red eyes over them.  Kaner booked it and Jon took off after him.  They ran for what felt like forever and running through a forest at night sucked.  Jon was blindsided by branches and slipped on leaves; at one point he thought he might have twisted his ankle on a root and from the look of things Kaner wasn’t doing much better.  It was terrifying because the thing chasing them just kept crashing through the brush behind them.  It never seemed to quite catch up but they just couldn’t lose it either.  Jon didn’t even know which way they were running, for all he knew they were getting further away from town.  Just when Jon thought he couldn’t run anymore --and damn he was glad the season was over because there was no way he was going to be up for skating tomorrow -- another large shape leaped out of the darkness crashing into the thing chasing them.  He and Kaner ran a little farther until they hit a clearing and Kaner stopped and turned around.  It was eerily silent.

“I don’t think I can run anymore,” he said through panting breaths.

“Me either,” Jon said, gasping to get enough air.

“Fuck. We’re going to fucking die in this fucking tiny ass town in the middle of nowhere just because your Princess is some kind of serial killer--” Kaner was freaking out.  Okay, that was an understatement: Kaner was almost having a panic attack.  John himself was on the edge of one. 

Jon gripped Kaner by the shoulders, looked him in the eye, and said in his steadiest voice -- which wasn’t all that steady, to be honest-- “We are not going to die.”

Kaner actually rolled his eyes. “We are going to die.  There is a giant thing, I don’t even know what it is, chasing us. There are wolves all around us and we didn’t tell anyone where we were going and I never even-”  Kaner cut himself off with a choked noise.

“You never even what, Kaner?”  Jon asked, rubbing his thumbs over Kaner’s shoulders, trying to sooth him as much as he could.

“I never told you-” Kaner cut himself off again, but this time seemed to come to a conclusion and with a muttered, “Fuck it, we’re dead anyway,” he reached up and grabbed the back of Jon’s head.  He pulled and-

“Are you guys alrigh- woah, am I interrupting something?”  A beam of strong light brightened the area around them and Stiles, of all people, as he stumbled into the clearing.  Kaner let go of Jon and put at least an arm’s length of space between them.  Stiles blinked and cocked his head to the side, then grabbed his phone and spoke into it.

“Sounds like Scott’s group caught him and is finishing up now.  I also found our two runaways.  Yeah, they did an awesome job of playing bait -” at this Stiles threw a grin and a thumbs up in their direction.  Jon scowled. Bait?  “Scott’ll be here soon. As if  he’ll allow Toews to leave the woods now.  Of course I’ll stick around!  Okay, see you at the house.  Bye.” 

Jon waited until he hung up, then said, “We were bait? Who are you people?  _What_ are you people?  Where is Scott?”  Stiles opened his mouth, then paused, looking a little stunned.

“Oh, shit.  Scott is going to kill me.  You weren’t bait on _purpose_.  I mean, after you started to run that alpha was distracted chasing you, which let Scott and his group circle around and take it down without needing any other help.  Which let everyone else take down the other one without anyone doing any suicide runs or getting hurt.  We did try to keep you away, or at least Scott said he told you to stay away from the woods tonight.  We were using the full moon to take them down, but once you were here, well, we use what we’ve got, okay.”  Stiles was talking very fast and looking a little wild.

“Suicide runs?”  Kaner repeated, disbelief evident in his voice.

“And as for Scott,” Stiles said, still talking like he hadn’t even heard Kaner.  He didn’t get much further when something bounded into the clearing.  Jon’s eyes widened as he got a good look at what had saved them earlier:  it was Scott, his Princess, with pointy ears and teeth and honest to god fur on his face, and blood, all over.  Scott glanced around and then focused on him.  Then he started to grin, wide and open and happy.  He practically bounced over to Jon and actually jumped on him, tumbling him to the ground.  Stiles yelped,

“Breakable human!” and Scott managed to have them fall in a way that didn’t hurt Jon.  Then he licked Jon’s face.  Kaner started to laugh, slightly hysterically. 

When Jon finally managed to sit up and push a now cuddly Scott to the side, three other figures had entered the clearing.  One was Allison, and she walked up to them and started to coax Scott off of Jon.  Stiles had started muttering to the blonde, oh god that was the girl Kaner had hit on, who was looking decidedly more supernatural.

“You should have seen them when I came into the clearing.  The way they were posed.  It was like a scene from a romance movie, well or a horror movie, but seriously, they are canon.  You totally owe me ten bucks.”Allison got Scott to his feet and they marched quietly through the woods, emerging in a clearing containing a large burnt-out husk of a house.  There they met Duncs, who looked normal, and Seabs, who had gotten the same hairy make-over as Scott.  Jon had had enough.  One of his team was part of this weird shit and no one told him.  He demanded an explanation.

He got one.  Duncs (because Seabs immediately started rough-housing with the blonde girl) told him and Kaner about werewolves.  And everything that went with them.  Stiles told Jon about Scott’s bite and didn’t tell them about what happened after, though it was obvious something did happen.  Stiles was a terrible liar.

About the time Jon’s mind stopped its blue screen of death routine and Kaner’s questions had devolved from useful questions (are there other werewolves in the NHL? Answer: yes, and yes the NHL, or at least parts of it, know about werewolves) into crude jokes (Jon did not ever want to know what a knot was in this context) the rest of the - the pack appeared, looking pretty ragged.

Leading them, to no one’s surprise considering the stalking routine, was the shady man, Derek.  He looked normal except for his eyes, which were glowing red, and the giant gaping scratch on his upper chest which seemed to be healing as he stood there.  He trotted up to them and looked down at where Scott was leaning against Jon’s leg and Jon was scratching his head, completely by instinct.  Derek sighed and stuck out his hand.

“I’m Derek.  I’m the alpha.” Stiles burst out laughing and received a glare that he waved off.  Scott perked up then.

“I can introduce him to the pack now, right?” he asked, a hopeful look in his eyes.  Oh god, his Princess had literal puppy dog eyes.  Jon was fucked. So, so fucked. 

Derek nodded, looking put upon ,and Scott was off. “Well, that’s Derek. Like he said, he's our alpha.  He’s also a giant pile of angst and trauma.” Derek growled, rolled his eyes and headed into the - could you actually still call it a house?  Scott continued,, “You know Stiles and Allison.” There was an increasingly familiar besotted sigh and a glance in her direction when Scott said Allison’s name.  She grinned back.  “They’re human, but Stiles is my best friend and basically is the only one with any kind of researching skills.” There was a cough from a very pretty red-head. “Right,” Scott said, “other than Lydia.  That’s Lydia, she’s also human, but also a witch.  Kind of.  We’re working on that.  Lydia, this is my Prince, Jonny.”  The red-head, Lydia, gave him a once-over that had him feeling as though he was up for the draft again, but she smiled and went back to helping one of the other wolves with first aid.

After Lydia, Scott introduced them to Isaac - curly hair, forward on the hockey team, cheerful, bleeding from the head; Boyd – big, taciturn, defence, favouring his ribs; Erica – the girl Kaner hit on, very sexual and forceful, defence, broken arm; Jackson – asshole (according to Scott), jock, forward and Scott’s co-captain of the team, whining about a rolled ankle; and Danny, who was a human, a hacker (allegedly) and a goalie, uninjured.

The rest of the full moon turned into a giant game of fetch, with Stiles, Allison – who came from a family of Werewolf hunters, holy shit – and Kaner, eventually, as the stick.  When the pack got tired they returned to the porch where Lydia, Danny, and Jon waited and flopped into a giant puppy pile of limbs and happy noises.  Jon told himself not to be charmed – they’d torn a _thing_ apart earlier that evening. 

Kaner flopped down next to him and said, “Beacon Hills is fucking weird.”

“Yeah,” Jon agreed.

“But awesome,” Kaner continued.  Jon thought about that as Scott came up to him and once again curled around his leg.  Jon wound his fingers through Scott’s hair and felt content.  His Princess was a strong, apparently unbreakable, hockey player.  Allison came up and curled around Scott, and yeah, Jon was content.


	4. Game 4: On the Road

The summer after finding his Princess was a good one.  Scott was in school for a few more weeks and Jon spent that time hanging out in Beacon Hills, getting to know the place ..  After the night of the incident that outed Scott as a werewolf, most of the guys who’d followed them to Beacon Hills went home -Not because they knew of the incident, but because Jon relaxed and life was less weird and hectic and therefore less hilarious for the guys.  Duncs and Seabs stayed for another week before they went to visit Seabs’ family, or, pack, rather.  Kaner stayed for a while longer with Jon, really getting to know Scott’s pack.  Kaner genuinely liked the pack and they apparently liked him back, much to Derek’s chagrin.  Kaner and Erica hung out a lot after they got over the “hitting on” incident, talking about hockey and maybe other stuff.  Jon didn’t know and didn’t monitor them.  He was just happy Kaner wasn’t getting into trouble.

Jon spent most of his time with Scott, and therefore Allison.  It was very clear that Scott loved Allison and just as clear that she reciprocated those feelings.  Strangely, Jon didn’t feel jealous.  Maybe because Allison made sure to include him in everything they did, including the time they went to a movie and started making out.  That was weirdly uncomfortable for everyone but Allison, who seemed a little disappointed.  Scott was great though.  He didn’t respond to Jon’s competitiveness which was sometimes unsettling but also really nice.  They settled into a very positive, encouraging relationship which was unlike some other relationships, such as the one he had with Kaner, in his life. 

Then Jon took Scott home with him to meet his parents.  Mrs. McCall came as well.  The visit went well; his parents loved Scott.  Of course, most people got along with Scott. Jon had yet to meet a person that didn’t; maybe Jackson, but even he had some grudging respect for him.  Jon’s mom meeting Mrs. McCall was probably the beginning of the end of the world.  They got along so well it was scary.  They were already planning a giant party, one that couldn’t happen until Scott was eighteen.  Overall, the two visits went well, but Jon was glad when he had to go back to Chicago for training camp.  He would miss Scott, but not the craziness of their families.

The season started well.  It was good to be back playing hockey.  There was chirping about his Princess but nothing truly mean.  He and Scott Skyped a lot.  Mostly they talked about hockey; they tried to talk about other things, like Scott’s school work, but it always came back to hockey.  They also tried to flirt – romance was a foundation of the Prince and Princess’s relationship.  He got asked frequently by his family and friends how it was going, though no one asked about the sexual part because that was a don’t ask-don’t tell-no one will have to report you for statutory situation, and he didn’t really have an answer.  Their attempts at flirting were awkward and didn’t do it for either of them.

“So, ummmm, your hair looks nice today?” Scott said once Skype finally connected; fucking Skype never connected when they wanted to talk.  Jon looked at Scott and realized that yeah, they were trying this again.

“I just got out of the shower.  You look nice,” Jon replied.  Shit, that was awful.

“Uh, yeah.  Allison says this shirt brings out my eyes,” Scott said.  The awkward silence stretched.

“I saw your game last night.  That goal was awesome,” Scott blurted out.  Jon sighed in relief and then grinned.

“Yeah,” he said and they devolved into hockey talk.  Then he had an idea.  Maybe good hockey was as much of a turn on for Scott as it was for himself.  Then this could be flirting.  Scott grinned when Jon started to flirt that way and laughed.

“I want you in my zone,” Scott said with a leer.  Jon grinned and thought this might work.  It seemed to.  They kept up the hockey flirting through a couple more Skype sessions.  Kaner gave him a disbelieving stare and then cracked up when he caught them at it.  Unfortunately, every time they started to actually get somewhere with the flirting Scott became horribly embarrassed and uncomfortable.

“I can’t do this,” Scott said over the, for once, great Skype connection.  He was shirtless, as was Jon, and they’d been getting pretty sexual in their conversation, “I’m sorry I just, I can’t.  I just.  I don’t like guys!”  Jon was stunned.  That didn’t happen.  Princes and Princesses were always sexually compatible.

“I’ve tried,” Scott was saying, “I really, really did.  Allison helped me too.  We tried all sorts of things.  We found porn that worked, only I think I was only turned on by the girls.  Gay porn mostly freaks me out, but we tried that too.  We even tried watching it while she was giving me a blowjob.  She’s Allison and how could I not be turned on by her even if that was in the background but it took way long than usual.  I’m sorry, but I just can’t do this.”  Scott looked miserable.  Jon was actually slightly relieved himself.  He was into men, but that was the problem.  Jon liked men his own age, not underage boys.  Scott was great but just was not physically attractive to Jon yet, maybe ever.

“Fuck,” he said.  Scott looked down and whined a little.  Something he did when he knew he was guilty and felt really bad.  “It isn’t just you.”

“You don’t like guys either.” Scott perked up a little.  Shit, now he was going to have to say it.

“I like guys just fine.  But ones my own age.”  Jon tried not to let his voice shake when he said it.  Scott deflated a little.

“So we’re broken?”  Scott asked.

“No, fuck.  We work well in everything else, so we can’t be that broken,” Jon said, trying to believe it himself.

“Maybe I’ll ask Stiles to do some research?  He’s good at that,” Scott offered.  Jon nodded.

“Yeah I might have someone I can ask too,” he said, thinking of the other Prince he knew.

“I’ll call you on Friday?” Scott looked hopeful.

“Yeah, I’ve got a morning skate but after that I’m free all day,” Jon said. “Work on your shooting.  Keep your head up.  I don’t care if people can see your eyes, dipping your head is a terrible habit to get into.”  Scott grinned and hung up.  Jon was smiling too; Scott had that effect on him.

Jon only knew of one other Prince that he could actually talk to (there was Ovetchkin but, just no.  The guy was a dick and Jon wasn’t asking him about personal stuff.  Also, who knew how they did things in Russia) and that was Crosby.  Sidney Crosby was a Prince, just like Jon, and was a friend, sort of; they’d played on the Canadian Olympic team, at least.  Further, there were rumours that Crosby already had found his Princess and that they were keeping it quiet.  So later that week, on a day Jon knew the Pens didn’t have a game, Jon called Crosby to ask about Prince issues.  He couldn’t believe he was calling Sidney Crosby, of all people, to ask relationship advice, but it was happening.  The phone was ringing.

“Hello?”  Crosby’s voice came over the line.

“Hi.  This is Jonathan Toews.  I’m calling to speak to Sidney Crosby,” Jon said. Canadian politeness went a long way.

“This is Sidney.  Why are you calling me?”  Crosby asked in understandable confusion.

“You’ve found your Princess, right?” Jon needed to be sure before he asked.

“Yes.  Why?” Crosby sounded even more confused.

“I found my Princess recently.”

“Congratulations!  If you’re planning a party, during the season is probably not the best time,”  Crosby began.

“No, no party yet. It’s just.  Are you.  Do you have sex with your Princess?”  Fuck.  After all the stuttering that sentence still sounded awful.  Crosby was silent for a long time.  The silence moved from shocked through offended and on to curious.

“Why are you asking me this?”  That was a legitimate question and while Jon did not want to talk about this with another captain, Crosby hadn’t immediately said yes so maybe he had some answers.

“My Princess is a sixteen year old boy who isn’t attracted to guys and I’m not into jailbait,” Jon said, getting it out all at once.

“Oh,” was all Crosby said, which was entirely unhelpful.

“What does that mean?” Jon was reaching the end of his patience.

“Me and my Princess don’t have sex either.” Jon would swear that Crosby was grinning on the other end of the line. “It isn’t even that she doesn’t like men; we just aren’t attracted to each other.  I don’t think our bond is any less strong for it.”  Jon was stunned and relieved.  They weren’t going to fail at the bond before they even got started.

Crosby probably caught Jon’s sigh of relief because he laughed a little and said, “Yeah, when my aunt told me it was okay to not have sex I was relieved too.”

“Yeah,” Jon managed to get out, “thanks.”  They ended the call quickly after that and Jon was glad that on Friday he’d be able to tell Scott to stop trying so hard.  It was good to know that it wouldn’t interfere with Allison anymore either.

 

***

 

When Scott had come to Stiles asking for help researching Princesses and Princes that didn’t have sex, Stiles knew something was up.  Scott had been twitchy for a while and it was actually a relief to know what the problem was:  Scott was straight. So Stiles researched.  There really wasn’t anything in western media.  Canada had way more Princess depictions than the States but it was still all romantic or sexual.  He did find a really cute show about two women who had lives parallel to each other and eventually at the end of the show they met and were Prince and Princess.  He saved that one for Erica.

There didn’t seem to be anything relevant at all.  Then he hit the jackpot.  There was an entire subgenre of K-dramas that revolved around Princesses and Princes that were best friends and set each other up with romantic partners or loved the same person, depending on whether it was a comedy or drama.  Stiles picked one, a simple, funny, romantic one about a Prince who was actually the Emperor’s son and a Princess who was a merchant’s daughter.  She ended up with the Prince’s brother and he ended up with a foreign princess and no one died of cancer.  He gave the show to Scott and Allison to watch.  They apparently marathoned it because they were back that Saturday, ready to talk about it.

“Why did you make me watch that?” Scott asked, looking on the verge of tears.

“What?  It was funny and happy!”  Stiles flailed around.  Why was Scott crying?  Why did Allison look like she was about to laugh?

“We did and it was really good but then I wanted to watch more and she died!” Scott exclaimed.  Stiles was confused and of course it showed on his face.

Allison just laughed, “We finished the one you gave us.  It was really, really good so we went looking for more.  The Princess just died in the one we chose.”

“There was a reason that I gave you that one.” Stiles was now on board and was with Allison in thinking this was hilarious. “Have you talked to Jonathan about it yet?”

“Oh yeah!” Scott perked up at that. “I did and he talked to one of his friends that’s a Prince too who doesn’t get it on with his Princess either!”  Scott looked so happy that Stiles couldn’t help but grin in return.  Allison, however, was looking a little down.

“What’s up, Allison?  I thought this was good news because he really isn’t going to split you guys up now,” Stiles said

Allison gave a small sigh and actually pouted a little. “Now I won’t get to watch them make-out or have a threesome or anything.”  Scott made a noise like he was dying.

“You’ll just have to use your imagination like the rest of us,” Stiles said, ignoring Scott’s whimpering.

“I know, but it’s such a missed opportunity,” Allison replied, patting Scott on the head.  Scott just flopped backward onto Stiles’ bed and groaned.  Stiles grinned at Allison and she grinned back.


	5. Game 5: Prank Battle

In the time since Scott had met his Prince, Stiles had kept a close eye on Toews and Kane.  At first it was because Toews was his best friend’s Prince and Kane was an assclown who was Toews’ best friend.  However, after the full moon when they destroyed two rogue alphas and outed Scott to Toews when Stiles had stumbled upon them in a scene from, like, Twilight or something, he’d been watching them for other reasons.  Scott had Allison, after all; Jonathan should have a boyfriend too.  In Stiles’ opinion Jonathan and Kane deserved each other.  He was pretty sure he had walked in on them about to kiss so the only question was whether they were together already or not.  Stiles thought not because Kane hadn’t been part of the Scott-and-Jon-trying-to-sleep-together debacle.  Which meant that Stiles had to get them to admit that they like each other.

He was also going to win everything ever in fandom when they came out.  First, though, he had to convince Scott to help, because he wasn’t going to go behind his bro’s back to mess with his Prince.  He picked a time after a pack meeting when everyone was drifting off to do their own thing.  Stiles pulled Scott aside and broke out the arguments.

“Jonny and Kane should totally be banging.” Let’s hear it for strong opening statements.  Scott’s mouth dropped open and everyone within hearing distance, which was pretty much everyone because werewolves, stopped what they were doing.

“What?”  Scott asked, clearly half-way persuaded already.

“Haven’t you seen the way they look at each other?  The way they talk about each other?” Stiles figured he had the most irrefutable proof ever. “They’re totally in love.”

“Stiles, sometimes when Jonny talks about Kaner I’m not even sure he likes him,” Scott replied.  Okay, maybe not as persuaded as he thought.  Stiles _may_ have tried some other arguments and may not have made the sort of progress he would have hoped.  But then Erica came in out of nowhere.

“Have you seen them play together?” she asked.

“If that were the case then Duncan and Seabrook would be getting it on,” Allison said thoughtfully.  The room was suspiciously silent.

“Really?” Stiles asked.

“I think also with their wives?” Isaac looked a little unsure but the other wolves were nodding.

“Okay, so, there.  They play together like a dream.  Also proof they are in love.”  Stiles tried to sound confident.  Scott still looked dubious.

“Look, fine.  I know it sounds weird-” Stiles began.

“Not any weirder than anything you say any other time,” Jackson cut in. “I’m out of here.  I don’t need to waste my time listening to you losers gossip about pro hockey players.”

“-but I know what I saw the night of the full moon.  When I got to the clearing, I swear they were about to kiss,” Stiles finished, ignoring Jackson’s interruption.

Scott still looked dubious but Erica was grinning and Allison was looking speculative and Derek, of all people, said, “They did smell close.”

Scott took one look at them, sighed, and asked, “What do you need me to do?”

Stiles figured the first thing they needed to do was figure out some pranks they could pull that would look like normal pranking but would have the added benefit of somehow getting Jonny and Kane together.  To this end, Scott (grudgingly), Allison, Erica, himself, Isaac, and to everyone’s surprise, Derek, put their heads together and came up with a series of pranks to help Jonny and Kane realize and confess their love for each other.

Some of these they could pull from Beacon Hills, like subscribing Kane to a magazine that featured guys who looked like Jonny in compromising positions.  But others they needed an inside hand and Stiles knew just who to call.

“Hello?” Patrick Sharp’s voice answered the phone warily.

“Hi! You like pranking your team-mates right?  That’s what you say in all of your interviews.  Because me and Scott have this epic prank that we want to pull on Jonny and Kane but obviously we can’t do that because we aren’t where you are right now so we were wondering if you could help,” Stiles tried to get all the information out as fast as possible in case Sharp hung up on him for being weird. 

“And you are?” Sharp asked but it sounded like he was smiling.

“Right, I’m Stiles.  Scott’s best friend.  Scott’s Jonny, Jonathan Toews’s Princess.” Stiles stumbled over the words but eventually got them out.  Sharp laughed.

“What do you have in mind?”  he asked.

“Wait. Really?  You’ll really help?”  Stiles had not expected it to be that easy.

“Yeah.  Tazer needs to be pranked, I’ve left him and Kaner alone for too long.”  Sharp was still laughing.  Stiles was sure he looked like a fish, opening and closing his mouth, making no noise.

“So kid, what do you need me to do?”

 

***

 

Jon finally had his life back on track; the team was playing well, Kaner was still an annoying shithead, and he and Scott were no longer awkwardly trying to have sex.  Once they’d stopped with the awkward attempts at romance, their relationship had settled and was something Jon really enjoyed and looked forward to working on.  The only tiny flaw in this entire outlook was that someone had decided that now was the time to start pranking him and Kaner; Kaner got annoying when he was pranked.  They couldn’t figure out who it was.  None of the guys on the team would own up and for a while none of them even knew it was happening.  Then came the day that it all blew up.

Jon was at the rink late after a skate.  He was walking down the hall when someone came barrelling past him and actually checked him into a closet.  Once Jon finally found the light he tried the door but it was locked.  From the outside.  What use was that?

“Where did that loser go?  If he wants a ride back to his place he better show his face soon.”  Kaner’s voice was coming down the hall.

“Hey, hold these for me.”  Sharpy’s voice.  There was a slam and the door banged open.  Kaner yelped as he was pushed through it and fell to the floor.

“Have a good evening guys.  Janitor’ll need this closet in an hour so have a nice vacation,” Sharpy said through the newly closed door.

“What the fuck?” Kaner shouted, sitting up.  He was holding a bouquet of flowers.

“I guess we know who’s pranking us now,” Jon said.

“Why are you here anyway?  Why didn’t you leave?” Kaner got up and went to the door.

“It locks from the outside,” Jon said as Kaner began to tug at the handle.

“Why the fuck would they do that?” Kaner said bewildered.  Jon ignored Kaner’s grandstanding and looked at the bouquet.  Nestled in the flowers was a card; it said: _Time to talk about your feeeeeliiiiings my dear Prince._ No signature, but Jon had been with Scott long enough to know Scott and, more importantly, Scott’s best friend.

“fuck you Stiles,” Jon said.

“What?” Kaner asked, finally turning away from the door.

“Sharpy isn’t the one pranking us.  Stiles is; he probably talked Scott into helping.”  Jon handed Kaner the note.

“We’re being pranked by the Scooby gang?” Kaner said and then he actually read the note.  He went a little pale. “Uhhhh.”

But Jon was already looking around for inspiration. “What kind of pranks can we pull from here?”

Kaner was pulled out of whatever he had been imagining. “We’re in a fucking broom closet; not many.”  But then he looked down and grinned. “But I do have my phone.”

Jon grinned back and they were quiet for a few minutes.

“Did you know that there is an entire magazine dedicated to furries?” Kaner asked with a smirk. 

Jon smirked back. “Guess Stiles is going to find out.”


	6. Game 6: Hockey Royalty Charity Banquet

The Closet Incident began a prank war that Jon and Kaner were going to win.  Kaner would forever deny that Stiles’ next prank was an actual prank.  Jon knew better.  It failed completely but it was an attempt.  Stiles got one of the guys on the team, maybe Sharpy -- none of them ever fessed up -- to steal all of his and Kaner’s clothing and luggage after a game, leaving them with nothing to wear after their traditional showers at the hotel.  This backfired completely for everyone involved when Kaner left the room completely naked, yelling about his clothes being missing.  They luggage was found very fast.  No one wanted to see Kaner naked.

In retaliation, Jon got Erica Reyes’ number from Kaner – they bonded over hockey and something about her being like one of his sisters – and fed-exed her several packages to put into Stiles’ laundry.  Jon could not stop laughing when Scott Skyped him a week later and spent the entire time complaining that Stiles smelled so strongly of Anise that the entire werewolf contingent of the pack was avoiding him and he was banned from pack activities until he got the smell off.  Scott scowled at him and hung up.  Jon called him back two days later and Scott told him Stiles still smelled, but he couldn’t keep a grin off his face when he said it.

The next away trip Jon and Kaner found that every one of their hotel rooms had single beds.  The last room was a honeymoon suite.  Kaner decided he’d had enough of the childish pranks and spent his entire post-game interview of the next home game they played talking about this kid he knew that had such a terrible life.  He dedicated all his plays to the unnamed kid that had no control over his life, had friends with anger-management issues, couldn’t get the girl he was in love with to give him the time of day, and was afflicted with a terrible and embarrassing disease that he heavily implied was syphilis.  Stiles texted Kaner with a text that said _fuck you i do not have syphilis but thanks for the dedication i feel so special_.

Two weeks later, after closed practice, Jon walked into a dead silent locker room.  When he finally made his way to the front of the crowd he was stunned.  There was a three tier wedding cake, gorgeously iced, decorated with hockey sticks, pucks and nets, and had, at the top, two groom figures with their numbers painted on the backs; one had a blond mullet.  It had a Hawk’s crest with _T &K_ integrated into it and their numbers on either side.  The cake was on a table strewn with white, red, and black flowers.  Above it hung a banner that said _Congratulations Toews and Kane_ in tasteful lettering.  Kaner pushed to the front and stared.  Then he began to laugh.  The laughter spread to the rest of the guys.  The cake was amazing.  The chirping for weeks was not.

Finally, Kaner and Jon were watching Carrie, and Kaner decided that that would be the best thing ever.  He was probably drunk.  They managed to bribe a kid on the hockey team, something Greenburg, to prop a bucket of pig’s blood on the door of Stiles’ house after making sure Stiles’ dad was out and Stiles himself was in.  Unfortunately, Greenburg was an idiot and didn’t realize that Stiles had Allison over.  She sent them a video message, covered in pig’s blood, looking like something out of a zombie movie – the after killing a hundred zombies part.  She said this would not continue.  Jon was inclined to agree with her. The season was getting serious and they needed to concentrate if they wanted to make the playoffs.  Kaner just whimpered.

Not long after the Prank War ended –

“It’s on hold!” Kaner insisted.

– Jon got his yearly invitation to the Hockey Royalty Charity Gala.  The Gala happened in August.

“Aww yeah!  This’ll be awesome!” Kaner exclaimed as he looked over Jon’s shoulder at the invitation.

“I’m not going,” Jon said.  He never went.  The thing was just a giant mixer to try and find the players without a Prince or Princess their bonded, and to show off the bonded couples.  He told Kaner that.

“Okay, I get why you haven’t gone because really who wants to be match-made by hockey officials,” Kaner said with a look of disgust, “but now you’re part of the bonded part.  And hey, Scott’s seventeen, now, right?  That’s less creepy, even.”  Tazer hadn’t actually realized that this year he wouldn’t be part of the meat market.  That made the entire thing less unbearable.  As a Captain that found his Princess this year he was actually almost obligated to go.  He looked at the charity being supported and it was one helping underprivileged Princes and Princesses play hockey; a charity he supported.

“Fine, I guess I should go,”  he said.  Scott would probably enjoy being able to meet all the hockey stars anyway.

“Yes!  This is going to be awesome.  Ovetchkin brags about it every year,” Kaner said with a look of glee.

“You aren’t coming,” Jon said.  Family of both Prince and Princess in the couple were invited but Kaner was definitely not family.

“Yes I am!” Kaner said, waving Jon’s phone around, “I just sent your RSVP.  You’re taking your mom and dad, Scott, Scott’s mom, Allison – though how you’re going to explain that is beyond me, Stiles, Erica, your brother, and me.”

“What the fuck!” Jon lunged at Kaner trying to grab his phone.  Kaner waved it around laughing and crowing about how fun this was going to be.  Jon just got mad.  What the fuck was Kaner doing?  He wasn’t family.  They were good friends, sure, but not family.  “Why the fuck did you do that?”

“Cause I’m awesome and I’m totally family to you, admit it,” Kaner cooed.

“You’re not part of my fucking family.” Jon was sure he shouldn’t be this angry about this. “Give me my phone back and get out.”  Kaner gave him a betrayed look.

“Seriously man?” he asked, looking hurt.

“Yes.  Get the fuck out of my apartment,” Jon yelled.  Kaner wasn’t part of his family.  Wouldn’t ever be part of his family because they were hockey players and Kaner wasn’t –

The door slammed on Kaner’s stunned face.

The rest of the break was varying levels of terrible.  Jon did get to tell Scott about the Banquet and he was excited, just like Jon had thought he would be.  Stiles was even more excited; he practically swooned.  It was the highlight of his rather dismal week.  Erica was also excited, though she had also received her own invitation because she was a draft prospect, which made Jon excited for her.  She was really good, she deserved to be drafted.  Scott’s mom was excited to meet Jon’s parents.  That led Scott to declare that they were going to die.  Jon and Kaner didn’t talk apart from official soundbites from their fight until the day of the Banquet.

The Banquet was being held in a hall in Washington, DC.  Scott looked super excited and also very well put together in his suit.  Allison wore a gorgeous dress and whispered, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep our relationship on the down-low tonight.”  Jon was relieved, both that she’d keep Scott in hand and also that she’d forgiven him for the pig’s blood.

Jon quickly left his parents and Mrs. McCall to talk.  He caught a glimpse of Stiles talking to Sean Avery and left that alone, he seemed to be doing well, not fainting, anyway.  He didn’t see Erica but he wasn’t worried about her, or his brother.  He talked to Crosby for a bit and met his Princess, though there seemed to be something weird going on between him and Malkin.  He wasn’t one to talk so when that started getting intense he decided to get some fresh air.

He found his way to a hall with no one else in it.  No one else until Kaner came striding into it.

“There you are.  I’ve been looking all over for you.” Kaner looked determined. “You can’t avoid me forever, you bastard.”

“We’re not talking about this here,” Jon said.  This was not the time and place to have an argument; there were officials and press all over the place.

“When is the right time, then?  Later, when you can avoid me and not answer my texts and calls?” Kaner was almost yelling.  Jon looked around for a place to have it out, because this was going to happen now, no stopping it.  He saw an open door, grabbed Kaner, and dragged him into it.  The door closed but Kaner was already up in Jon’s face, almost hissing in anger.

“Why the fuck are you so mad that I’m here?  Am I that much of an embarrassment to you?”

“This is an event for family.  You aren’t related to me.  We aren’t actually joined at the hip despite what the media says,” Jon spat, just as angry.

“Fuck that!  You had no problem with me going on your little home visit to your Princess.” Kaner was furious.

“Half the team went,” Jon shot back.

“None of the others went into the woods to find out what the fuck was going on with you.  You didn’t invite any of them!” Kaner yelled.

“You’re bringing that up?  What were you going to say that night, then?” Jon called him out.  That night had been bugging him for the entire year since it had happened.

“Fuck you.  Fuck you and your stupid face.  I was saying that I fucking loved you, you fucking idiot!  I thought you got that,” Kaner yelled.  Jon was stunned into silence. “How’s that for being fucking family.  I backed off because obviously you didn’t want to talk about it and you were trying to get together with your Princess but then you weren’t anymore and you still didn’t talk about it so I figured-“

“You figured what?  That you could just barge your way into being my, my-“ Jon trailed off, not knowing how to categorize Kaner.

“Yours.” Kaner said quietly.  He looked defeated. “Yeah, it’s stupid, but you could have just said no, fucktard.”  Jon was frozen.  Kaner wanted him.  Wanted to be his family.  Fuck.  Jon reached out and grabbed Kaner’s head, cut his startled “What?” off with his mouth, and kissed him like he’d wanted to for years.

“I didn’t want you to be part of my family when you didn’t know what that meant to me,” Jon said, when they eventually broke for air.  Kaner punched him.

“For your utter fucking stupidity I get the first blowjob,” Kaner – no, Pat said.  Jon just rolled his eyes and slid to his knees.

“What -- I didn’t mean-“ Pat lost his words to a moan.

Later, when they tried the door they found it locked.  From the outside.

“Oh, fuck you Stiles!” Pat yelled, “You don’t get credit for it working!”

 

***

 

Stile was having the time of his life.  He was surrounded by hockey stars; past, present, and future (hello Erica!).  Okay, explanation of the Erica thing.  Firstly, she was at the banquet because she was awesome and totally going to be drafted.  Secondly, she was a Prince; she’d been super cagey about it and Stiles had only just found out.  Point is Stiles actually knew some people here.  He got to talk hockey with some of the best players ever.  He got to meet Sidney Crosby and his Princess!  And Geno Malkin!!  Stiles honestly thought he might faint when he met Mario Lemieux.  He also got to talk about Princesses and Princes and how that worked with hockey.  Ovetchkin somehow found him and began talking his ear off.  How was this his life?

After a while he began to look for his group, needed to know what Scott was doing, make sure he wasn't embarrassing anyone.  Scott was fine, ensconced with Allison and a woman that was, holy shit, Ovetchkin’s Princess.  Definitely leaving him there; even if he looked a little terrified, Allison looked in her element and happy.  Melissa McCall and the Toews parents were still talking – also terrifying, to be honest.  He let his eyes scan the crowd, and there was a face that shouldn’t be there.

“What are you doing here?” Stiles asked Derek after he made his way across the room. “This is for Princesses and Princes of the NHL and their families.”  Stiles may have flailed to make his point.

“I’m Scott’s alpha,” Derek said.  At Stiles’ unimpressed look, he ground out, “Someone realized this and sent me an invite.  I’m going to watch over you all.”

“Just what we need,” Stiles said with a sigh, “protective alpha in the house.”

“Have you seen Erica?” Derek asked.

“Uhhh, yeah.  I think she’s over there talking to Sidney Crosby’s sister,” Stiles said, pointing back the way he came.  Derek looked over and narrowed his eyes.  He, there was no other word for it, slunk over to them.  Stiles had never been so disturbed – well, maybe when Peter offered him the bite, and that time with the Alpha pack, and that time that they would never speak of, and okay maybe this wasn’t the most disturbing thing he’d seen but it was disturbing.  Shaking his head he trailed after Derek.

Derek sniffed the air when they got close to Erica and turned to Stiles. “You didn’t say she had found her Princess.”

Stiles gaped.  Erica’s Princess was Taylor Crosby?  He had barely known that Erica was a Prince and now her Princess was, was- “I honestly had no idea,” he said weakly.  Derek just raised an eyebrow.  Stiles made a frustrated noise. “Not all of us have wolfie noses,” he protested.

“We’ll leave them alone for now,” Derek said, and pulled Stiles away. “Have you seen Toews?”

“No. Last I saw he was leaving to get some air or something,” Stiles said.

“This isn’t another prank is it,” Derek asked accusingly.

“Holy crap no!” Stiles nearly jumped out of his skin and looked around frantically to make sure Allison hadn’t heard. “Allison said she’d skin me if I or any of the pack tried anything.”  When Derek just raised an eyebrow, again, Stiles said, “Honest!”  And he was being completely honest.  Allison could be seriously scary sometimes.  No way was he pranking anyone anytime soon.

“Good,” Derek said, then started back towards Erica. “I’m going to go make sure no one bothers Erica and -- what was her name?”

“Taylor,” Stiles said, stunned again at that turn of events.  The night was a success on all accounts.  Especially when he found out that Jonny and Kaner had accidentally locked themselves in a closet.


	7. Game 7: Hockey

After the Hockey Royalty Charity Banquet and the foundation-shaking revelations that had occurred there, life slipped back into normality – well, as normal as a werewolf Princess and his NHL Prince could be, anyway.  Stiles heard all about Scott and Jonny’s slowly developing not-romance.  Was platonic romance a thing?  Because if it was, then that was what Stiles swore they were developing.  Whatever it was, it involved lots of Skyping and weekends spent in one or the other city visiting during what was left of the summer.  Also, Halo.  Because Scott was a traitor who would rather play Halo with his Prince than his best friend.  When the school year started again, Scott moved to Chicago for vet school.  Allison had been accepted into U of Chicago for a business degree with the plan of taking over her dad’s gun business when she graduated.  She and Scott and Jonny and Kaner went out on hilarious double dates.  For the last one, Jonny and Kaner took Scott and Allison to a Ke$ha concert.  Stiles couldn’t avoid hearing about it when Scott and he talked.

Erica, on the other hand, had been drafted – that was an exciting day for everyone - and was settling into having a Princess.  They were ridiculously well-suited in Stiles' opinion; they were going to play ridiculous hockey together.  She was settling into her new hockey team, the Charlotte Checkers, and apparently also cursing Skype’s terrible fritzy nature – seriously, they had to get Danny on that.

Lydia was accepted into Oxford and dragged Jackson to England.  By all accounts she was already reinventing math over there.  Boyd had been accepted into the California Police Academy and was doing well so far.  His serious demeanour and peak physical condition – werewolfdom – probably were helping a lot.  Isaac was going to the University of Minnesota and was working on a degree in psychology.  Finally, Danny was at MIT learning how to hack more efficiently – well, learning how to program computers, but really, how did they expect him to use that knowledge?

Stiles, himself, had been accepted into a bunch of universities.  He decided to stay close and do a history degree at the local college.  He didn’t need a fancy degree to run the online Supernatural Help website that he and Danny were working on; history couldn’t hurt, though.  Besides, someone needed to be sure that his dad was eating healthy and Scott’s mom was happy.  Someone also had to stay behind to bully Derek into living again, especially with most of the pack leaving for school.  Stiles had big plans to get Derek to go back to university.  It would happen.  Eventually.  Stiles was patient.

But before everyone left for their respective walks of life/post-secondary educational institutions came the summer – a summer which was dominated by freaking out over moving and Finstock refusing to believe that most of his Champion hockey team was leaving.  To get the absolute last bit of work out of them that he could, Finstock had scheduled practices throughout the summer.  He had the entire team plus any prospective players for the following year come to them.  This meant that most of the pack spent their summer teaching freshmen-to-be’s how to play hockey at a higher level.  Unless you were Scott, Jackson, or Erica, in which case you were stuck teaching the team from last year all of your skills and wisdom.  On the plus side, it was a really good distraction from freaking out about the coming fall.

One pretty average practice in August became significantly less average when one of the soon-to-be freshmen actually skated into a goalpost because he was too busy gaping at something in the stands.

“That’s.  That’s.” He couldn’t even get out a full sentence.  Soon most of the team was turning to look.  Scott brightened immediately.

“Jonny!” He shouted and waved his stick around, just missing Stiles’ head.  Stiles glared at him.  Sure enough, Jonny and Kaner were sitting in the stands.  Now they came down to the boards.

“Hey Scott.  We had some time off and came to visit.  Your mom said you were here.” Jonny did a complicated handshake with Scott.  Of course they’d be that couple.  Coach Finstock had noticed by now and lit up so bright he could be the top on the town Christmas tree.

“You two!  You can show these lumbering idiots how hockey is played. Get skates on.  If you don’t have any,” he continued after they didn’t move, “I’m sure there are extras in the locker room. The rest of you I want in two teams.  We’re going to scrimmage and you are going to try and keep up with real hockey players.”  He was shouting into a giant void of disbelief.  The team was already stunned that there were two famous hockey players in their rink, like four feet away, and now Coach was telling them to get ready to play with them!  Jonny and Kaner looked to be in a little bit of shock that Finstock would talk to them that way.  Scott, however, was not in shock.

“This is going to be awesome,” he said with a giant grin.  Jonny grinned back; Stiles would bet that was a reflexive grin, Scott pulled those out of people all the time.

“Fu- Hell yeah!” Kaner grinned at them all and then asked, “So where’s the locker room?”

“Bilinski, show them where it is and find them gear.  The rest of you, teams, now!  Don’t stare at them like they have giant facial tumours, no matter how attractive you’re imagining those tumours to be!” Finstock yelled.  Stiles shook his head and lead Jonny and Kaner to the locker room and found them gear.

The game that followed was one of the best times of Stiles’ life.  It began slow because Jonny and Kaner weren’t sure what level the Cyclones were – State Champions!! – and the kids were still in awe of the NHL stars.  Erica wasn’t holding back, though, and by the time she scored on Kaner’s team and he swore at her the rest of the kids were getting over themselves.  The game got interesting fast after that.  Jonny and Kaner were obviously still holding back but the team was keeping up pretty well, all things considered.  Except for Scott.  Scott, for some unfathomable reason, was terrible – like pre-wolf terrible.  Stiles didn’t know if it was because he was distracted by Jonny or what, but it was hilarious.  He did everything wrong.  Finstock nearly had a conniption and Stiles actually fell over laughing at one point when Scott made a particularly awful shot.

The next week, after Jonny and Kaner left, Scott came over to help Stiles pack and spent the entire time complaining that all Jonny talked about for the rest of the visit was Scott’s awful hockey.  He left when Stiles didn’t stop laughing for a full minute.

 

***

 

Having Scott in Chicago was amazing.  They didn’t live together but Jon thought that was probably better for them right now.  They saw each other all the time anyway.  Scott lived in dorm, not in Jon’s apartment, for two reasons.  One, because he was still seventeen and therefore still not legal.  Secondly, he wanted to live with Allison once he moved out of dorm and Jon’s apartment was too small for three people.  Allison was apparently already looking for houses in the area.  Jon just let her do what she wanted.  Kaner, on the other hand, was constantly bugging her about flooring and number of baths and all sorts of other housing shit.

Scott came to as many practices and games as he could and Allison came with him.  Playing with Scott, his Princess, watching was an amazing motivator.  Jon was playing his best consistently.  Whenever Stiles or any of the others in the pack were around they’d tag along. 

After one closed practice, Sharpy caught sight of Scott, Stiles, Allison, and Isaac sitting in the stands and said, “You should get them to play with us.  He plays, right?”

Kaner overheard, of course, and said, “Stiles would die,” as he skated past.  Sharpy laughed and stole the puck.  Jon wasn’t sure if he wanted Scott to play; he was good, but the last time they played together Scott had been terrible.  But Kaner was already talking some of the guys into staying after to play a quick scrimmage with the Captain’s Princess and Jon just let it happen.  It would be good to play with him again.

After practice, Jon caught Scott’s eye and skated over to the boards. “You want to play with us?”  Scott gave him a brilliant smile, then glanced at his friends. “Them too.  If they want,” Jon offered.

Scott ran up the stairs to Allison and his friends and bounced excitedly.  Jon couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying but Isaac’s eyes lit up and Stiles looked right at Jon and paled a little.  Allison smiled and shook her head.  Scott said she could skate but she always refused when Jon was around. 

Scott raced back down and said, “Yes, that is definitely a yes.  Except for Allison,” at that he pouted a little, “but Stiles is asking where we’ll get gear.”

“There’s some extra stuff in the back,” Jon shrugged. They’d find stuff.

Once the guys were geared up and on the ice the game began.  It was amazing to play with Scott and Scott was playing well today.  He and Isaac managed to keep up, probably because of the werewolf thing, and Stiles didn’t do too badly.  The Hawks were holding back but Scott and Isaac still managed to surprise them from time to time and once, Stiles got his team to execute a strategy that Jon wanted to pick from his brain, though it probably wouldn’t work without two teenage werewolves on the ice.  Jon was flying; he had Kaner on his right and Scott on his left.  The other team had Isaac and Stiles, but even with Stiles’ strategic mind they didn’t stand a chance.

Kaner skated up to him afterwards and whispered, “I want you inside me so bad right now.”  And yes, motherfucking yes right now, only he had Scott here.  He glanced over and Scott was making a pretty hilarious disgusted face.

Scott skated over after Kaner left to bug Stiles and said, “Me and Allison are going to go for dinner now.  She’s got a movie she wants to see after.”  Jon looked at his smile and knew that he’d heard Kaner’s comment and was giving him the out.

Jon laughed, “Have fun!”

Scott said, “You too!” then made the disgusted face again once he realized just what he’d said.

 

***

 

Being a Princess was pretty awesome.  All his life Scott had tried, and mostly succeeded, to ignore his Princess-ness.  But after bonding to Jonny, Scott was pretty sure that this Princess stuff was pretty cool.  Jonny said there was going to be a bunch of media stuff that happened after Scott turned eighteen but Scott didn’t worry about that, Jonny worried enough about that for the both of them.  He and Stiles both worried way too much.

The point was that Scott’s life was awesome.  He had an amazing Prince dude who was an NHL hockey star, he’d gotten into vet school which was hard but so, so worth it, and he still had Allison – who was picking out a house for them! 

Scott was the most excited because today was his eighteenth birthday, which meant no more hiding from the media for one, but more importantly it meant that the entire pack made it back to Beacon Hills to celebrate.  Scott was super lucky that his birthday was in December; he never had to be in school.  He was even luckier this year that Jonny and Kaner didn’t have a game or practice and were able to come too.  They’d already had the cake and song – Scott was pretty sure they all sang that badly on purpose – and now they were are at the local hockey rink for an awesome game of pick up hockey. 

Everyone played these games, even his mom and Stiles’ dad.  Even Allison – Scott was kind of glad she didn’t play otherwise; she was kind of scary on the ice, but it was just another thing he loved about her.  This would be the first game they played since fall, when everyone split up for school.  Lydia and Jackson even made it home from that university in Britain or something.  What did Jackson even do there?  And, even more exciting, was that this is the first game that Jonny and Kaner would play with them and the first one that Erica’s Princess, Taylor, was there for; it was good to have someone other than Danny who was actually a goalie.  Everyone was arguing about teams.

“Obviously, we will have the same teams but one will get Toews and one will get Kane,” Lydia said, in her do-not-argue-with-me-I’m-obviously-right voice, and everyone got quiet.

“Jonny’s on my team,” Scott said.  Oh god, he’d just talked back to Lydia.  He was going to die.

“Obviously,” was her reply; yes, he was going to live to see another day. “And Erica’s gets Taylor.”

So they divided up and the game began.  It felt amazing to really not hold back.  They’d rented the rink so no one was around to see any furry-shenanigans, as his mom put it.  Scott nearly laughed at the look on Jonny’s face when they really got going.  The game got really vicious really fast.  Scott loved this kind of playing.

“What the fuck was that?” Kaner sounded like something was really wrong so Scott turned and saw that Jackson had checked Erica into the boards.

“He just checked her,” Scott said, a little confused.

“Can’t handle the way we play?” Jackson chirped at the same time.

“That wasn’t a check, that was an assassination attempt!” Kaner actually looked really concerned.

“Remember that both Jackson and Erica are werewolves.” Oh good, Stiles was handling it. “They won’t check any of the humans except Allison that way, and she can defend herself.”  Kaner didn’t look convinced.

“If you children are done whining can we get back to the game?” Lydia asked pointedly, really pointedly, like a porcupine really, that many points.

The game got started again and it was great.  Scott had Stiles on his team so they had actual strategy.  It was the most amazing feeling to really play.  Hockey was amazing and sharing it with his Prince Jonny, and Allison, was the best feeling in the whole wide world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been a riot. I wrote this frantically in the 2 weeks before season 3 of Teen Wolf started. It took forever to be ready to post. I don't write normally and yet somehow the soul-bonding (of the non-average sort), hockey, and Teen Wolf all came together to form 18k of story. I don't know if I will ever get around to it (see the previous "I don't write") but there are at least three more stories to tell in this universe. The story of Taylor and Erica (which madecunningly promised me when we were world building), Kaner's fandom thesis on why "Sterek is totes canon guys!", and one entitled "Sidney Crosby and the Tale of Two Princesses" for which I would need to do a lot of research on figure skating. I hope you all enjoyed the ride.


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